ATLANTA — From thousands of affordable and luxury housing units to a community with schools, restaurants, and hotels, a developer wants to transform dozens of acres of property along the Beltline in Southwest Atlanta.
The 25-acre property off Sylvan Road SW currently includes vacant lots and empty warehouses.
However, developer Mike Abebe hopes to transform his property into a community where people can live, work, and play.
“This would impact the whole city of Atlanta,” Abebe said.
The high school dropout and Ethiopian immigrant is one of the largest single private landowners in the city and said he plans to create a development that promotes investment in the inner city of Atlanta.
“For me, my entire career has been in inner cities, and I’ve seen inner cities being de-invested instead of invested in,” added Abebe.
Abebe is partnering with the architectural firm Perkins and Will to design the renderings of the proposed development.
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He plans to create over 4,000 residential units, which will include both luxury and affordable housing, in addition to places for people to work and send their children to school.
“If you live here, we want to create enough jobs so you can work here. And if you’re a single mom, you can drop off your child by walking. You can pick up your child by walking,” Abebe shared.
Members of the Atlanta City Council recently reviewed the request to allow a zoning change for the development of the land.
If the zoning application is approved, Abebe said he wants construction on phase one of the project to begin in the spring of 2026.
He said the project is estimated to cost over $1 billion and will take about 10 years to complete.
“We have a lot of international investment interest because of the sheer scale and size of this,” Abebe said.
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